Brian Bell, who went to Dayton Dunbar and was the state champ in 2015 in the 800 meters is transferring from the University of Houston. He made nationals last year as a freshmen at Houston and has ran a 1:47 800.

Great choice! That's a very competitive program in a blue chip conference. Plus they have a killer indoor track. They host the best collegiate indoor invitationals in the country. Let's hope we see some fast times from Brian!

Whoa....Tiffin....Washington....big difference. Fingers crossed it's Washington.
(Not meaning to bash Tiffin. They are a very competitive D2 team. But not even close to Washington and the competitive atmosphere within the PAC 12).

(Not meaning to bash Tiffin. They are a very competitive D2 team. But not even close to Washington and the competitive atmosphere within the PAC 12).

Actually Tiffin is the best Track team in Ohio. Coach Croy has had them in the National Hunt year in & out. Finally brought home the indoor crown last year & a runner up outdoor. I think they're definitely more competitive than many think. Unfortunately they have lost some key returners due to transfers. But definitely don't sleep on the Dragons!

I agree. Didn't mean to sound negative regarding the Tiffin program at all. On the contrary. What can you say that is negative about a national championship program? My point was just that in a head to head comparison of the Washington team and Washington conference vs the Tiffin team and the Tiffin conference, it's night and day. However if you want to run D2 and particularly if you want to stay in Ohio, Tiffin is an excellent choice. So is Ashland.

I agree it's night & day from D1-D2,but I'm not sure if you knew that Tiffin takes their elite athletes all over the nation. They were on the East Coast, West Coast & down in Florida too for a few meets. The downfall would be that they are going out of their way for the competition. Whereas Washington has the National competition built in

Traveling to out of state competition is always good if you are an Ohio team because the best competition is outside of Ohio. I know Tiffin travels and that helps their athletes in preparation for tough GLIAC meets and National Championship meets, no doubt.

Tiffin is a great D2 team, especially in the field events and sprints.

But Washington is another thing. I'll compose another post comparing the two teams.

This analysis utilizes the current rosters of both teams. Tiffin lost some major talent from last year's squad and so did Washington. But top programs tend to re-load. Washington is a very well-balanced team top to bottom. Tiffin is a sprint/field event squad with the exception of James Ngandu in the distance events. In the interest of simplicity I'll only list marks, not names.

SUMMARY
Out of 21 events compared, UW was superior in all but one. Far superior in most. Where Tiffin had the edge was the 10,000. But not really. Tiffin's best mark was 29:29. Their next best runner was approx 4 minutes slower. UW only ran seniors in the event last year. They ran 28:53 and 29:09 but since I only counted present rosters, Tiffin got the edge since those UW seniors graduated.This year UW will run a couple more seniors in the 10,00 and these guys will have 5000 PR's that are sub 14:00. So they are capable of 29:00 in the 10,000 (or faster).

UW is a very good team but certainly not the best team in the U.S. in D1. Not even close. On the other hand Tiffin is the top team in the U.S. in D2...or at least close. So UW coming out on top in virtually every event gives us a glimpse of the night and day difference between the top levels of division 2 and a team that isn't even ranked as high in D1 as Tiffin is in D2.

This comparison is in no way meant to dis-respect Tiffin. That would be inappropriate and out of line. It is just an illustration of the difference between D1 and D2. Go Dragons!!